Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington Wednesday, before Congress’s Joint Economic Committee hearing on the economy. He said the size of the federal deficit needs to be addressed soon.

“Addressing the country’s fiscal problems will require difficult choices, but postponing them will only make them more difficult,” he said.

Bernanke did not say what he thought those choices should be – or, more precisely, how the US should mix revenue increases and spending cuts. But his message was clear, according to Brian Bethune, chief US economist of HIS Global Insight.